"A solid introduction and useful survey of slaving activity by the Muslims of North Africa over the course of several centuries." — ChroniclesEverybody knows about the transatlantic slave trade, which saw black Africans snatched from their homes, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and then sold into slavery. However, a century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in England, Ireland, Italy, Spain and other European...

"Simon Webb's eminently readable book may draw gasps of horror, disbelief, or disdain . . . a mind-blowing and fascinating journey through history." — On: Yorkshire MagazineAll nations and peoples have a body of legendary tales and semi-historical episodes which explain who they are and help to define their place in the world. The British are no exception, and in this book, Simon Webb explores some of the most well-known episodes from British history; stor...

A look at the surprising nineteenth-century technology that inspires this literary and cultural movement: "I was very impressed by this book." — SF CrowsnestIn recent decades, steampunk has grown from a rather obscure subgenre of science fiction into a striking and distinctive style of fashion, art, design, and even music. It is in the written word, however, that steampunk has its roots—and in this book Simon Webb explores and examines th...

Many British baby boomers are very nostalgic about a supposed golden age; a vanished world when children were generally freer, happier and healthier than they are now. They wandered about all day; only returning home at teatime when they were hungry. Nobody worried about health and safety or 'stranger danger' in those days and no serious harm ever befell children as a result.In Post-War Childhood, Simon Webb examines the facts and figures behind the myth of children's carefree lives in the...

This revealing history explores Britain's use of concentration camps from the Boer War to WWII and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.The term concentration camp will forever be associated with the horrors of Nazi Germany. But the British were the true driving force behind the development of these notorious facilities. During the Boer War, British concentration camps caused the deaths of tens of thousands of children from starvation and disease. In the years after Wor...

There is an ancient and quite baseless myth that the use of torture has never been legal in Britain. This old wives' tale arose because torture had been neither endorsed nor forbidden by either statute or common law. In other words; the law has, until the late twentieth century, never had anything to say on the subject. In fact, torture, inflicted both as punishment and as an aid to interrogation, has been a constant and recurring feature of British life; from the beginning of the country'...

Before the Industrial Revolution, everyone lived within short walking distance of their workplace. However, all of this has now changed and many people commute large distances to work, often taking around one hour in each direction. We are now used to being stuck in traffic, crammed onto a train, rushing for connecting trains and searching for parking spaces close to the station or our workplace. Commuters explores both the history and present practice of commuting; examining how it has sh...

Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. This book explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England five hundred years before the guillotine was invented. Boiling to death...

This study of friendly fire on civilians during the London Blitz and the attack on Pearl harbor exposes the unknown horror behind these iconic WWII events.The London Blitz and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor have ascended to the level of myth for Britain and America. Yet both of these artfully constructed narratives of heroic resistance to aerial bombardment conceal the massacre of citizens by the very militaries charged with protecting them.In Britain, t...

A look at the leader and members of the militant Women's Social and Political Union and their contribution to the rise of fascism during the 1930s.Emmeline Pankhurst is seen today as a valiant champion of democracy, but in the 1930s certain prominent former suffragettes were comparing her to Hitler and Mussolini. It was suggested that Mrs. Pankhurst and her Women's Social and Political Union could be viewed as a proto-fascist movement; an idea likely to strike the m...

"Webb takes what we know about these magical beings via pop culture and explores their origins and how their respective images have changed over time." — The PortalistThis book tells the fascinating story of the origin of our ideas about wizards, witches, and fairies. We all have a clear mental image of the pointed hats worn by such individuals, which are based upon actual headgear dating back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. Carefully sifting through old le...

"Fascinating and enlightening . . . Historical true crime books can often fall victim to being very dry . . . [This book], however, is quite the opposite" ( Crime Traveler).Despite the Victorian period's reputation for stability and social order, there was plenty of civil disorder during this time—violent crime and terrorism were considerably worse than they are today. This book recounts a time when citizens faced problems eerily similar to those with whic...